Gaza Doctor Demands Release at Court Hearing
Appearing handcuffed before the court, Abu Safiya delivered a direct appeal through his defense attorney Nasser Abu Odeh. "My detention is unjust and arbitrary, and I demand my immediate release," Abu Odeh quoted the physician as telling the court. "I am a pediatrician who provides medical services and care to patients, the wounded and vulnerable people in the Gaza Strip," Abu Safiya said. "I carried out my work in accordance with international law and humanitarian standards, and my detention is unjust and arbitrary," he added.
Abu Odeh confirmed in a video statement following the session that the court opted to defer a ruling on whether detention would continue, with a decision expected within hours or days.
The hearing was Abu Safiya's first appearance since February 2025, when Israeli media broadcast footage of him shackled inside prison, drawing widespread condemnation from rights organizations globally. Days before Wednesday's hearing, Abu Odeh disclosed that the doctor is being held in severe conditions — bound by both hands and feet, given limited food, denied access to safe drinking water, and refused medical care — despite suffering from multiple chronic illnesses requiring regular treatment. Israeli authorities transferred him on June 3 from Negev Prison to solitary confinement at Nafha Prison in southern Israel.
The Israeli army arrested Abu Safiya on December 27, 2024, during a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital. On February 14, 2025, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights reported that Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman ordered his detention under Israel's "Unlawful Combatant Law" — legislation enacted by the Knesset in 2002 that permits indefinite detention without formal charges, strips detainees of protections afforded under the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, and grants courts broad authority to extend detention on security grounds without full disclosure to detainees or their attorneys.
The UN, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and numerous medical and human rights bodies have called for urgent intervention. In October 2025, Amnesty International reported, citing an attorney who visited him, that Abu Safiya had been subjected "to abuse and other ill-treatment" during his detention.
Approximately 9,500 Palestinians — including women and children — are currently held in Israeli detention facilities, where conditions of hunger, torture, and medical neglect have led to the deaths of dozens of detainees, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights reports. Israel's war on Gaza, launched October 8, 2023, has killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians, injured more than 173,000, and destroyed roughly 90% of the territory's infrastructure.
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